 With the announcement of the Odyssey expansion we know our pilots will finally be able to leave the seat in their ships but once you leave the ship what happens next? Will you magically appear at the exterior of the vessel in a similar way to the deployment of the games only surface vehicle the venerable SRV or will we finally be able to explore our ship interiors? Likewise with space stations and star ports will they have an interior space that we walk around in? With Frontier remaining typically tight lipped for now at least it's hard to know for sure but we've been wondering here if the answer to these questions and others has in fact already been answered in the history of Elite Dangerous. Throughout the Kickstarter way way back in 2012 there were a series of developer diaries and commentaries most of which featured David Braben speaking about how the Kickstarter was going and importantly for this commentary how the development of the game was being planned in the longer term. In a video released on the 14th of December 2012 called Elite Dangerous Development Plan David talked specifically about the features of the broader game after its initial release. In the video when discussing what will be added later David very specifically states quote you will be able to walk around inside your ship you will be able to get out of your ship and walk around inside space stations unquote. He further mentions features such as fighting fires inside your ship seeing your cargo flying off into space through a hole in the ship caused by damage and he also mentions potentially walking into other people ships and stealing them. Of course whether this stuff is in the initial release of Odyssey or not remains to be seen but the intent was clearly there 8 years ago as I speak these words and David clearly states in the video that the game has been designed from the ground up to accommodate these features when the time comes. Also of particular note is a video released in November 2014 called the future of Elite Dangerous. Bear in mind at the point that this was released we didn't have planetary landings and we didn't know SRVs were even a thing. In the video David Braben talks about going down to a planet surface and driving around in a buggy. A year later Horizons launched and we found ourselves driving around in a buggy having landed on a planetary surface. The rest of the video is full of features that aren't yet in the game but that relate directly to the ability to leave the pilot's chair or space legs as the Elite community calls it. Whilst the mention of these features in a video is obviously not a guarantee David Braben's comments certainly hint at a precedent which in and of itself makes the video worthy of further dissection. So what is the video saying? Well here's where it gets really interesting. On hearing the Odyssey announcement unsurprisingly the community lit up with questions whilst walking on planets is confirmed in the Odyssey teaser video itself there has so far been no mention of ship and station interiors. It's fairly unanimously agreed that walking in stations and on planets is a must have. Video game development is expensive and hugely complicated so we can't take it all for granted however if you listen to what is said in the 2014 video and I have like a lot no seriously I had a notebook and everything then here's what you can garner from it. Walking on space stations or outposts is mentioned six times. Walking around your ship is mentioned six times. The video also makes note that the ships have been designed right from the start to accommodate this feature with organised decks and a structured layout including lift shafts etc. This was way back in 2014 remember. The video also makes mention of exploring what it calls derelict husks in space is it referring to generation ships maybe floating around your own ship in 0G inside and outside and even 0G combat. In fact with all the people that are interviewed in the video there is mention of little else it honestly seems inconceivable to me a full six years later that these features wouldn't now be implemented in Odyssey. It's hard not to dream too big and just let your imagination go bananas the fear of being disappointed is quite real but think about it this was six years ago what has Frontier been up to all this time. Getting out of the chair might seem a trivial matter but the simple act opens up huge possibilities for where the player might go and what the player might do and that in turn has huge development overheads. In the 2014 video for example David mentions that the interior of something like an anaconda is as big as the average level in a regular first person shooter game and in a game like Elite those development requirements spiral as soon as you add varying gravitational strengths and then spiral even further with the introduction of 0G. You could argue that such an endeavour would take a company a good five or six years to get right within the framework of a game like Elite that certainly seems to be the case in at least one other life in space simulator currently still in development. Ultimately if Odyssey launches and there is no access to the ship and station interiors whilst I'm still convinced the expansion will have significant value I do think it will be a much tougher sell to the community in general particularly when you consider how the game was pitched during its kickstarter period. As with any speculation piece it's hard not to go down a rabbit hole but these features have been specifically mentioned as being part of the roadmap albeit a really long time ago. With an expansion now incoming that will finally see the pilot in Elite leave their chair the opportunity for a convergence of the ideal and the implementation is clear. In a forum post in August 2018 Will Flanagan at Frontier stated that what we now know to be Odyssey went into full production quote a while ago unquote. So at this point it's been in full production at Frontier for well in excess of two years and in another forum post in March 2019 he describes Elite's next era as quote a defining moment in the history of the game and our biggest update yet unquote. Here is the torriously tight lipped about the Elite roadmap it's a little frustrating for the player especially when you peer over the fence and see what your space sim neighbours are talking about in their gardens however they have stated that development diaries are making a welcome return so at the very least we should be a little wiser than perhaps we were previously going forward. If you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to the channel and click the little bell icon and also please do give the video a thumbs up as that stuff really helps us smaller channels. That's it for now thanks very much for watching we'll be back later this week with more videos until then 07 commanders follow the greens on the way out and do keep clear of the toast rack we very much look forward to seeing you next time.